Music recording and self-playing mechanism



No. 749,181: I 'PATENTED'JAN. 12, 1904..

R. A. GALLY. MUSIC RECORDING AND SELF PLAYING MECHANISM.

, APPLIOATION FILED DEC. 30. 1902.

H0 MODEL.

lflitmeooen 4 f Suva/who's UNITED STAT S Patented January 12, 1904.

ROBERT A. GALLY, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

MUSIC RECORDING AND SELF-PLAYING MECHANISM.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 749,181, dated January 12, 1904. Application filed Decemlier 30, 1902. Serial No. 187,137. (No model.) I

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ROBERT A. GALLY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented new and useful Improvements in Music Recording and Self-Playing Mechanism, of which the following is a speci fication.

My invention has for its object the more perfect recording and self-playing of music by mechanical means, especially as relates to rythm, dynamics, part distinctions, and phrasing, and for these purposes I now show certain novel mechanisms.

and records produced by and used in combination with the mechanisms herein shown, described, and claimed are not claimable in this application and are therefore only shown herein to illustrate the things now claimed; but said other features are shown and claimed in appropriate separate applications.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a front elevation of a keyboard and part of supporting-case, portions of the case being cut away to show the connections from the keys to the recording devices, the record-rolls and indicating mechanism being shown at right of figure. Fig. 2 is an end view from left of Fig. 1 and shows the operation of the keys on a piano-action and on the recording connections. Fig. 3 is a plan view of the keyboard, &c., portions of the keyboard being cut away to show the connections and indicating mechanism underneath. Figs. 1, 2, and 3 are about quarter-scale to working dimensions, reference being had to my ten-by-fifteen sheet of drawings filed with my application herein, while on same sheet of drawings Figs. 4 and 5 are about three-quarter scale. Fig. L is a larger and more detailed view of the rolls and indicating parts shown at right end of Fig. 1. Fig. 5 is a detailed end view from right of Fig. 1 showing the rolls and indicating mechanism, some of the duplicated parts being omitted to permit showing of interior parts, and a portion of a record-surface is included, exhibiting thereon the peculiar indications made by the recording mechanism,

Many of the features of the music sheets showing a run of notes of the scale from treble to bass, the bass being at the right hand of the record-surface.

Previous endeavors in the art of recording musical notes from the manual performance of a musician have resulted only in various ways and means of making the indications to represent by their position and length the pitch and duration of the notes recorded without regard to'or indication of the varied speed and power of the attack of the various individual notes. Therefore no accurate knowledgehas been obtained of elements of touch of individual performers nor any certain understanding of the means of production of the various so-called qualities of touch on instruments of percussion tones controlled by manual-keys, (pianos, &c.,) and all criticism and discussion. of so called tone color, tone-massing, 850., in piano-playing, especially as relating to chord effects, has of ne cessity been esthetic rather than practical. By means of my mechanism herein set forth I record the exact manner of movement of each key as played upon, each recording pencil, pen, or equivalent being moved by its corresponding manual key in a direction transverse to the line of movement of and substantially parallel with the face of a traveling record-surface which is propelled at a steady speed. he record will therefore show the time value according to length of the record-surface, and each indication will be angular to the line of movement of the record, the degree of each angle depending on the speed of attack movement of the key in its ratio to the speed of movement of the record. An irregular attack of a key will produce an irregular or curved angular indication. The different attacks of various notes will be shown by the various curves and degrees of angles of the various indications on the record, and any variation in the speed and power of the attack of the various notes of a chord will be similarly indicated.

From all the foregoing it is evident that all the personal characteristics of various players, including their mannerisms of touch, can be recorded and analyzed and accurate data secured from which to reproduce the effects by automatic means or through the increased knowledge of musical performers.

N. B.As a piano-hammer is of a given weight and leaves the control of its jack and key before it strikes the string, the speed of the hammer as it leaves the jack is the sole determining element of the touch or tone quality, and the amount of pressure on the IQ key is a mere secondary incident in overcoming inertia and resistance, wherefore the indications of speed of attack recorded by my mechanism are an absolutely true and complete means of determining all mechanical and 5 artistic factors of piano-playing.

failure to delineate the expression factors of the individual notes these previous devices were either very complicated and costly or liable to clog and I miss their duties and have not been such that an ordinary user could at- 2 5 tend to and keep in order.

The mechanism shown herein is simple, compact, and durable, has not necessarily any inks, chemicals, or batteries, takes up its own lost motion, and automatically cares for the 3 wear of its marking-pencils or equivalents,

which are easily and cheaply renewed when consumed by wear and can never become clogged or inoperative.

1 Wlll now describe the construction and operation of my mechanism as it is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, which show what I consider to be a particularly desirable form for general use, although it will be understood that various equivalents of parts and 4 modifications of construction may be used without departing from the spirit of my invention.

Rolls R R serve to carry and propel a web or sheet of material, such as paper, suitable to receive graphic indications thereon, which web is hereinafter called a sheet, record,

or record-surface and denoted s in the drawings. The rolls are propelled by any suitable motor of governed speed, as M, and

5 these rolls turn in the direction of the arrows and draw the record 3 over the tracker-board 25 and under a series or set of recording means 1* to f, &c. The tracker tmay be substituted by any suitable bearer or roller when the instrument is only designed to record and not to reproduce.

The recording means 7' to 9' each consists of a holder lb, of durable material, preferably of tubular form, its bore, channel, or groove being of a size to neatly fit a pencil-lead Z or other substance adapted to produce a graphic 1nd1cat1on. A spring p or equivalent presser means is placed in position against each one of the leads Z and keeps same constantly 5 pressed down along the bore of holder h and in constant contact with the record 8 except on such of the recording means as have the interrupters "/1, in which instances the pressers 1) hold the leads Z against the interrupters until the note is indicated and the holder and lead deflected, when the lead slides off the interrupter and is pressed against the record s and indicates thereon until the indication is finished and the lead Z again slides up on the interrupter a. Each holder Zr has its upper end engaged by a socket-bearing in a guiderail (1}- and its lower end guided in a guideway slot 01' groove in a guide-rail G, the latter permitting the holder lb and its lead Z to swing or deflect in a direction substantially parallel with the face of the record and transverse to the direction of travel of the recordsurface s and its rolls R R, but preventing any movement of the holder in a direction in line with the direction of travel of the record. \Vhen a recording means is deflected, it will cause its lead Z to make an indication that is angular to or deflected from the direction of travel of the record a. e

The deflecting of the recording means 9' to r is controlled by the movements of the corresponding manual-keys Z: to Zf through the connecting means now to be described. These connections are preferably made as shown, a number of crank-rods or rockers c to a being disposed in one or more planes parallel to that of the keyboard K, the axes of these crank-rods being oblique to the general line and front of the keyboard, the angles of obliqueness of the axes of the various rods to said line being varied to form a fanned or spread arrangement of the rods to facilitate connecting from the wide scale of the keys to the narrower scale of the recording means 0* to r which recording means are arranged in a line parallel to the plane of and transverse to the line of the keyboard. The line of arrangement of the series of recording means is preferably at less than a right angle to the line of the keyboard, said line of arrangement being approximately at a right angle to the average line of the varied axes of the crankrods, the object being to avoid as much as possible the inequalities of movements from greatly varied angles of connection and change of direction.

The crank-rods have two cranks to each, one being substantially horizontal, although shaped to clear the adjacent rods, and the other crank practically vertical. Each hori- Zontal crank is in position to be depressed by the movement of its corresponding key, and each vertical crank connects to its corresponding recording means, the movement of the key and crank-rod thereby moving the holder h and deflecting the lead Z in direction transverse to the line of travel of and substantially parallel with the face of the sheet s, thus producing the deflected or angular indications on the record corresponding in their angles,

degrees, and curves to the varied attack of the keys. The wires or rods w transmit the motion of their keys through holes in the keybed, and thus connect the keys to their corresponding crank-rods. Screw adjustments are on the wires or rods w or at other suitable place on the line of the connections between each key and its corresponding recording means, thus enabling the accurate adjustment of the movement of each recording means. Springs 3 or other presser means are employed to return the recording means and connections to normal position after an indication movement is finished. It is desirable to place such means y so that each will press against its recording means and against the movement of all connections when actuated by the key, so that all. lost motion may be avoided and accurate record indications be produced.

The lowest (bass) octave of keys are connected to recording means 1 to 0' which have no interrupters to their graphic means or leads Z, and consequently mark continuous longitudinal lines on the record-surface, varied only by such deflections of said lines as have occurred in indicating any of the notes of that octave that have been played and recorded. This style of continuous lines for all the notes has the special advantage that the wear of all the graphic means is equal, and when pens are employed any drying or clogging of ink isavoided. This style can be employed through out the entire scale of a record; but it is often desirable, especially when the music is complicated, as in the treble, to avoid the need of using a scale-measure when reading from the record,'and for this purpose I arrange the recording means to continuously line all the sharp notes and have detents or interrupting means, as 71, to the natural-notes recording means to cause their marks to occur only at the times of indications of the naturals The interrupting means 2' are shown in Fig. 5 in the form of thin plates '6 set into the lower rail G in such inclined position to the face of the record-surface that their corresponding graphic means or leads Z will normally rest on their interrupters 2', slide off and down when making their deflecting indications on a record, and slide up on their interrupters after an indication is completed. Thus the recordsurface will show continuous lines in groups of two and three with wider spaces between the groups than between the continuous lines of each group, and in both the narrow and wide spaces the intermittent indications of the natural notes will occur. This style of record can be easily read without assistance of any scalemeasure by placing the record 8 in such position that the direction indicated by the arrow is away from the person who is reading the recordthat is, turning the record right for left of the position shown in Fig. 5, but with same face of sheet 5* in view. In the turnedaround position of the record 8 a group of two continuous lines represents C-sharp and D-sharp, respectively, any indication in the space between them being D-natural and any indication at left of and near C-sharp line being C-natural and any indication to the right of and near to D-sharp line being E-natural, while a group of three continuous lines represents F-sharp, G-sharp, and A-sharp, respectively, any indications to the left of each being the natural notes of the same letters and any indication to the right of and near to the A-sharp line being B-natural. The diagonal series of indications on sheet 8 in Fig. 5 is a chromatic scale showing the order of notes, right to left, as bass to treble, which will give a clear understanding of the various arrangments of indications above described. hen desired, the entire scale of the recordindications can be on the group-line and space system.

Either a blank sheet or a partially-perforated one can be used to record on. 1f the sheet 3 be a perforated one, it may be used to open and close the apertures of tracker 2?, which are understood as being connected to any suitable form of self-playing mechanism connected to the musical instrument, and such will consequently cause its music to be performed. In this manner any previously-recorded sheets which have been perforated according to their indications may reproduce the playings which they have recorded, and, if desired, a musician can play additional parts on the keyboard during such reproduction and record the additional parts on the perforated record, thus preparing such record for the perforating of the additional indications and consequent elaboration of the music of the perforated sheet. Thus a single performer can step by step build up and elaborate aconcerted composition. As the recording means 0' to 9' stand to one side of the apertures of the tracker t, they in no wise interfere therewith nor with any perforations in the sheet a, and any indications made on the sheet are not lost by any previous or subsequent perforating of the paper, and the indications are in convenient position to guide the placing of a punch at their edges when perforating.

The sheet a in Fig. 5 has some notes perforated, part of these being without indicatingmarks, having been perforated before any record-marks were made on sheet 8. Others of these perforations show indication-marks at their edges, having been recorded after the first perforations were made and these indications being afterward perforated, and the numerous indications shown without perforations are those which have been recorded on sheet s by the recording means since the making of the various perforations and in musical accompaniment with the automatic playing from the perforated notes. When the complete parts of a composition are to be played at the one time, a blank sheet is used, and so, also, when the first parts of a number of parts to be successively played. To have the recording means 9" to 7 the tracker t, and sheet-propelling rolls R R all out of the way of the operator or performer when seated at the instrument, these parts are placed to one end of the keyboard. WVhile the recording means, crank-rod connections, sheet apparatus, 620., can be placed above the keyboard and to its rear, it will usually be more practical to to have most or all of these parts underneath the keyboard. hen the sheetpropelling apparatus is under the keyboard, it is necessary to provide means for inserting and moving the sheet .9 and any spools, hubs, spindles, or flanges that may be attached thereto and to have sufficient access to the spindles, rolls, shafts, &c., of the propelling apparatus to enable the proper placing of the sheets therewith. At the same time it is usually undesirable to move the recording means or tracker, or both, every time a sheet is changed. Therefore provision is made for inserting and removing the sheets and their attachments (if any) by moving them in and out in a line with the axes of the propelling rolls, spindles, &c. The particular means shown herein for this purpose is the carrying of the sheet-roll R and the take-up roll R and their spindles on a carriage C, running in ways or guides, as m a. With some styles of sheets and their fastenings, &c., it is only necessary to provide movable carriage for take-up R, in some cases for the front spindles or clutches only, and the sheets will then be movable in direction stated.

I am not aware that any music-recording mechanisms have heretofore been devised to make indication of the speed and power of the attack of the various individual notes nor that any deflecting or transverse indicating or continuous-line indicating of music-records has been attempted nor that any divergent crank-rod connections have been used for music-recorders. herefore I intend my claims to be understood as generic. It is apparent that electric or jacquard contacts or fingers can be substituted as equivalents for the tracker; that a stylus or an electric contact to respectively scrape or groove the record-surface or decompose chemicals in such surface would be a mere equivalent of a lead or crayon, and so, also, would an inking-pen, for with any of these marking means deflected, or angular marks could be made and wear taken up, &c., by the means claimed; that other connecting means besides crank-rods can be employed, either mechanical, pneumatic, or electrical, to convey the movement of the key to correspondingly deflect the recording means; that any suitable musical instrument having a keyboard or even only one or a limited number of keys, or any dummy or practice keyboard or even single dumb key can be used to operate with so much of my invention as may be requisite for the particular use desired to be made thereof; that the connections to the recording means may be made indirectly from the key through the action parts, &c.; that any disk, cylinder, tablet, card, &c., may be used as equivalent of a paper or other sheet for a record-surface, and yet with any, several, or all of these substitutions, equivalents, modifications, combinations, &c., such devices will be subject to the claims herein made.

hat 1 claim as my invention is 1. One or more depressible manual-keys, means adapted to propel arecord-surface, and recording means connected to and operated by the manual-key action moving the corresponding recording means in direction transverse to the line of propulsion for, and substantially parallel with the face of, such record.

2. A depressible manual key, recording means for producing graphic indications upon a record-surface, and means for moving said surface and recording means relatively to each other, the recording means connected to and operated by the key and the intervening connections in a direction transverse to the aforesaid movement, and substantially parallel with the face of such record, and recording an indication angular to or deflected from the direction of the movement first aforesaid, and corresponding to the musical attack of the key.

3. A manual-key operatively connected to a musical note sounding device, recording means for producing graphic indications upon a record-surface, and means for moving said surface and recording means relatively to each other, the recording means connected to and operated by the key and the intervening connections in a direction transverse to the aforesaid movement, and substantially parallel with the face of such record, and recording an indication angular to or deflected from the direction of the movement first aforesaid and corresponding to the musical attack of the key.

4:. A series of depressible manual-keys, several recording means for producing graphic indications upon a record-surface, and means for moving said surface and recording means relatively to each other, the several recording means each connected to and operated by a corresponding one of the keys and the intervening connections in a direction transverse to the aforesaid movement and substantially parallel with the face of such record, to produce record indications angular to or deflected from the direction of the movement first aforesaid, and corresponding to the musical attack of the several keys.

5. A series of manual-keys, each operatively connected to a musical-note-sounding areas-1 I 5 device, means adapted to propel arecord-sur face, and recording means connected to and operated by the manual-key action moving the corresponding recording means in direction transverse to the line of propulsion for, and substantially parallel with the face of, such record.

6. A series of manual-keys, each operatively connected to a musical-note-sounding device, several recording means for producing graphic indications upon a record-surface, and means for moving said surface and recording means relatively to each other, the several recording means each connected to and operated by a corresponding one of the keys and the intervening connections in a direction transverse to the aforesaid movement and substantially parallel With the face of such record, to produce record indications angular to or deflected from the direction of the movement first aforesaid and corresponding to the musical attack of the several keys.

7.. A series of depressible manualrkeys, several graphic recording means each operated by a corresponding one of the keys and the intervening connections and all arranged to continuously delineate a series of generally parallel lines on a record-surface, the recording means each connected to and operated by its corresponding key and the intervening connections in a direction transverse to the general direction of the record-lines and substantially parallel With the face of such record and thereby making indications on the record angular to and deflected from the general direction of the lines and corresponding to the musical attack of the keys.

8. A series of manual-keys, each operatively connected to a musical-note-sounding device, several graphic recording means each operated by a corresponding one of the keys and the intervening connections and all arranged to continuously delineate a series of generally parallel lines on a record-surface, the recording means each connected to and operated by its corresponding key and its intervening connections in a direction transverse to the general direction of the record-lines and substantially parallel With the face of such record and thereby making indications on the record angular to and deflected from the general direction of the lines and corresponding to the musical attack of the keys.

9. A series of manual-keys, a plurality of recording means for producing continuous generally parallel lines on a record-surface, and connections from each key to its corresponding recording means arranged to move said recording means in direction transverse to the general direction of said lines and substantially parallel With the face of such record, and thereby deflect said lines by the movements of the corresponding keys and recording means and their intervening connections to indicate the musical attack of the keys,

the series of keys and lines corresponding to the notes of a musical scale or a particular combination of notes. 10. A series of manual-keys consisting of sharps and naturals lIl chromatic-scale order, and a plurality of connections and recording means for producingcontinuous generally parallel lines on a record-surface for all the sharps of the scale and deflecting said lines by the movements of the corresponding sharp keys and their connections, and recording means and their interrupters, and connections to said recording means controlled by the natural keys for producing intermittent indications of the natural notes on said record-surface in the blank spaces between the continuous lines of the sharps, the recording means and lines of the sharps being spaced in groups of two and three with wider spaces between the groups than between the individual continuous lines of each group.

11. Aseries of graphic means for producing musical-note indications on a record-surface, means for propelling a record-surface in a certain direction, individual controllers connected to each corresponding graphic means to deflect said graphic means transversely of the direction of propulsion for, and substantially parallel to the face of, such record, when recording a musical note, and a guideway or groove disposed in the general direction of the line of the series of graphic means and holding the graphic means against movement in line with the direction of propulsion for such record-surface but allowing their deflecting movement transversely to the said line of propulsion and substantially parallel with the face of such record.

12. One or more manual-keys, means for propelling a record-surface, recording means connected to and operated by the keys for producing record indications transverse to the line of propulsion for, and substantially parallel With the face of, such record, and interrupters independent of the key connections and arranged to interrupt the marking contact of the graphic means to prevent the making of the record indication during the intervals between the movements of its key.

13. A keyboard, means adapted to propel a record-surface, recording means operatively movable transversely of the line of propulsion for, and substantially parallel with the face of, such record, and a number of crank rods or rockers connecting the several keys to their respective recording means.

14:. A keyboard, a series of recording means, and a number of crank rods or rockers having their several axes divergent, the said crank rods or rockers connecting the several keys to their respective recording means.

15. A keyboard, a series of recording means, and a number of crank rods or rockers having their several axes divergent to each other and all approximately parallel to the plane of the keyboard and connecting the several keys to their respective recording means.

16. Akeyboard, a series of recording means arranged in a line transverse to the general line of the keyboard, and a number of crank rods or rockers having their axes divergent to each other but approximately parallel to the plane of the keyboard and connecting the several keys to their respective recording means.

17. A tracker or scale-reader adapted to be operated by an automatic music-sheet, and a plurality of recording means combined therewith and in positions to produce record indications on said sheet at the sides of their respective note apertures or readers of the tracker or scale-reader.

18. A tracker or scale-reader adapted to be operated by an automatic music-sheet, in combination with musical-note-recording means arranged in position to record upon such music-sheet when the sheet is in position to operatively control the tracker or scale-reader.

19. In combination, a tracker or scalereader, an automatic music-sheet, and musicalnote-recording means arranged in position to record on the sheet while it is in position to operatively control the tracker or scale-reader.

20. Ahorizontal keyboard having combined therewith a music-recording and sclfqalaying sheet apparatus having its recording means, tracker or scale-reader, and propelling-roll for such sheet all horizontally arranged underneath, at the front, to one end of, and transverse to the general line of the keyboard.

apparatus.

ROBT. A. GALLY. Witnesses:

M. G'ALLY, IRENE CRAWFORD. 

